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Despite political turmoil and economic uncertainty, costs of renewable energy worldwide are still declining — and those decreases could accelerate, according to an analysis from BloombergNEF published February 4.

The costs of clean power technologies such as wind, solar and battery storage are expected to dip 2% to 11% this year, even more than last year’s average decline, BNEF said. They are expected to fall another 22% to 49% over the next decade, depending on the location and government policies, BNEF said.

Even in countries that impose tariffs — notably the United States, but also India and Europe — cost declines are expected to persist, but are likely to be smaller than those in markets without barriers or tariffs targeting imported renewable technologies.

The price tag of clean electricity is measured — and compared with other types of energy — using a method that calculates the estimated expenses over the lifetime of the project. This Levelized Cost of Electricity, abbreviated as LCOE, averages the up-front expenditures that comprise the bulk of most renewable energy projects’ expenses over the projected lifetime of the installation.

This figure is then compared to the cost of fossil fuel generation, including the funds needed to construct a fossil fuel plant, along with an estimate of the tab for the fuel the facility will need over the course of its life.

To be sure, the LCOE model doesn’t incorporate all aspects of electricity generation, such as the system changes needed to accommodate variable wind and solar energy (to dive more into these caveats, check out this explainer from nonprofit World Resources Institute).

But the costs of batteries, which help balance wind and solar, are also dropping. After sliding by one-third last year, they are expected to fall below $100 per megawatt hour this year, a threshold that just a few years ago was considered a sort of holy grail in the industry. They could slip another 50% by 2035, BNEF said.

Overall, the cost of solar, wind and batteries has been on a steady downward march for more than a decade, aside from a pause during the Covid pandemic, when prices remained fairly stagnant. BNEF expects that downhill trajectory to continue, even for solar, which has already experienced declines of more than 90% over the past decade.

The combination of renewables and batteries together is now the cheapest electricity option in several huge markets, including China, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom, according to Amar Vasdev, an energy economics analyst at BNEF.

“That’s a significant chunk of power cheaper than fossil fuels,” he said.

Huge increases in renewables manufacturing capacity in China, which has overwhelmed global demand, has pushed prices lower globally. China has put the production and export of clean-energy technologies at the top of its economic agenda, making the country the world leader in cleantech manufacturing. But it’s also stoking trade friction that could delay some of the price declines, though it’s unlikely to reverse them, BNEF said. The report didn’t specifically address the Trump administration’s recent tariffs, which are significant.